11.19.23 "Grateful – For All of You!"

This Sunday will begin Thanksgiving week in the USA. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because we get a window of opportunity to practice gratitude and thankfulness. These are very important spiritual virtues and mentioned frequently in ACIM. "And gratitude to God becomes the way in which He is remembered, for love cannot be far behind a grateful heart and thankful mind. God enters easily, for these are the true conditions for your coming home." (OrEd.Mn.23.4) I believe it is important for us to not only think thoughts of gratitude, but to speak words of thankfulness as well.Show more

I am grateful and thankful for my amazing job, being the Executive Minister of the Community Miracles Center (CMC). I have had this job for almost 37 year now. Many people think this kind of longevity in the professional workplace is unheard of, and maybe even impossible in today’s modern environment. Apparently, they are wrong. And I am grateful. I still have my job and the CMC Church is still here.

It hasn’t always been easy. I am very aware that things I have said, and stands I have taken, have not always been popular. Many in our congregation, and some on the CMC Board of Directors, have not liked some of my positions and they have been free to tell me this – which they have.

30 plus years ago I was quite vocal about how I was choosing a bisexual, polyamorous lifestyle and that ACIM gave me a lot of spiritual back-up for these lifestyle choices. Some in the congregation and the Board thought this was professional suicide. The spiritual / religious market place would not be accepting of these “extreme” points of view. Apparently, they would be wrong. And I am grateful. I still have my job and the CMC Church is still here.

In the first few years of the new millennium I let go of using the Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP) version of ACIM. I embraced and supported the new version that was published based on the earlier ACIM edit found in the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) Library. It had been given to Hugh Lynn Cayce as a gift from Helen Schucman and William Thetford. When this new edit was first published in book form in 2006, I started using it for my classes and writings, and dropped using the FIP book. Again many thought I was committing professional suicide. They believed the FIP book would always be the most widely accepted and used book, and the other book, would at best, have only a small niche market. Apparently, they would be wrong … again. And I am grateful. I still have my job and the CMC Church is still here.

In 2020 and 2021 I was very critical of how our society was handling the Covid19 problem. I was vocal about being against any mandated lock down measures, which included mandated masking. Although always an advocate for people doing what they were guided to do, I was very open about my not taking any Covid inoculations. I was also vocal about not appreciating being barred from entry into restaurants and public venues in my home city of San Francisco. When I was told that I could always eat outside (in the cold and rain) I did not believe that was fair and right. Again, I was told that my positions would be professional suicide. I was told that spiritual/ religious people had to get on board with the Covid narrative because we needed to be seen as functioning for the public good. Other well known ACIM teacher had. Apparently, my critics would be wrong … yet again. And I am VERY grateful. I still have my job (and my body’s life) and the CMC Church is still here.

So on Sunday I will again be celebrating Thanksgiving and strengthening my weakened ability to be grateful, "... you need to develop your weakened ability to be grateful, or you cannot appreciate God. He does not need your appreciation, but you do." (OrEd.Tx.6.23) I do appreciate God, and I appreciate all of His children. At this moment I am especially grateful to all who stuck with me these 37 years. You stuck with me even when you didn’t agree with me, and even if you did not make the same choices that I made. Noted and appreciated!

I am grateful for YOU, the CMC congregation. And I am especially grateful for those who will share with me this coming Sunday.

31 min.
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